


Of Ties and Buoys

by summerartist



Series: The Ties Series [1]
Category: Hornblower (TV)
Genre: Drama, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-18 22:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15496614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerartist/pseuds/summerartist
Summary: Admiral Pellew has some news to relay to Captain Hornblower and he has no idea as to what his reaction will be. Hornblower manages to surprise him, as always. Gen





	Of Ties and Buoys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tamuril2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamuril2/gifts).



Horatio stood outside of the admiral’s cabin, body straight and tall as one accustomed to holding it at attention. He waited to be admitted with the company of the marines on either side of the door. The young men gave no indication that they were aware of his arrival save a brief glance in his direction.

Horatio had three choices before him: He could knock at the door and alert the admiral that he was waiting for him, he could ask the marines if the admiral should wish him to enter, or he could stand here until his presence was acknowledged. He lingered outside until at last he heard a voice within. It was faint, holding a note of hesitation.

“Come.”

A marine stepped forward and held the door open for the Captain of the Hotspur. Horatio tipped the man a nod and stepped inside of the cabin, lingering by the doorway until the door was snapped shut. He eyed the cabin and the admiral before him. Horatio noticed that the admiral’s desk was conspicuously clear of papers when it usually was teeming with missives and maps. Also he observed the partially full decanter of wine sitting on the sideboard with one glass empty and presumably waiting for him. The second glass was in Pellew’s grasp and was not quite full.

“Captain Hornblower, it’s a pleasure to see you, sir.”

The address was somehow both informal and formal at the same time, stilted in a way.

“My congratulations, again, on your union.”

Hornblower mustered a smile but found it faltering slightly in the presence of the admiral’s stalling. He saw no reason why the admiral should wish to acknowledge his marriage again but mentally marked it down as just another conversation starter people deigned to use.

“Thank you, sir. I must also give my thanks for your speech on our behalf. Maria and I were very glad that you could attend.” A happy glimmer in his eyes spoke of his gratitude towards the admiral and all that he had done, always, on his behalf. He could not wish for a better man to serve under.

“It was- ha’ hm- a pleasure.” Pellew seemed to check himself, clenching his teeth in a grimace and turning his head away.

Horatio watched his reactions with open curiosity. He studied the admiral, who had taken a quick swallow of his glass as if to fortify himself.

“Is there something the matter, sir?”

The admiral seemed almost agitated in the way he was shifting from foot to foot on his usually steady sea legs and how he had forgotten to offer Horatio a customary glass of wine. It was clear that something had happened that Pellew was hesitant to speak of.

“There is- have a seat, Mr. Hornblower.”

Again, the admiral’s hands were twitching at his sides as if he did not know whether to lay them upon the table or tuck them behind his back.

Horatio was still at a loss but chose not to interrupt whatever was running through his former Captain’s mind. It looked like it was bound to be bad news.

“Let me be frank with you, Mr. Hornblower. I do not tell you this now because I should hope anything would come from it, and it was my duty that I should have divulged this long before...” He trailed off and seemed to momentarily lose himself in his thoughts.

When he raised his eyes to meet Horatio’s he saw the Captain gazing him in an utterly perplexed way, no doubt due to his uncharacteristic dithering.

“Captain Hornblower, I have done you a disservice.” The announcement had an air of finality and self-condemnation to it.

Horatio opened and closed his mouth several times. He finally gathered himself enough to protest.

“Sir, you-”

Admiral Pellew held up a hand, stern look cutting him off.

“No Hornblower, let me continue please. This has long been awaiting your attention. At the time I thought it was in your best interest but...afterward when it was within my power to inform you I found that I did not wish to leave the results to chance.” Pellew let out a frustrated sounding sigh.

Horatio raised his eyebrows, completely at a loss and unable to settle the admiral’s mind.

“But I get ahead of myself.” Here he paused to gather his thoughts.

As the admiral handed him the glass and poured him a generous amount from the decanter it almost felt like an apology. Horatio met his gaze again and attempted to read his expression but the admiral was once again closed off. He sat back and stopped looming over the table. Instead, he settled down across from him and waited for Hornblower to take a drink.

Once Horatio took a sip the admiral reluctantly started his explanation in the form of a question.

“It states on your record that you are the only son of the late Doctor Hornblower?”

The last thing Horatio expected this to be about was his family and he found himself being taken flat aback. The question seemed to be rhetorical but Horatio nodded anyway.

“You have no doubt met your father’s blood relatives when you were a child, is that correct?”  
Horatio answered an affirmative with more confidence this time and confirmed that he had met his grandparents in his youth and recalled several visits over the years.

“And...have you met your relations from your mother’s side?”

Horatio wracked his brain and stretched back into childhood memories to whenever aunt-this and cousin-that were mentioned. After about a minute of thinking he realized that he had not in fact heard his mother’s family brought up and they had never visited. It was a peculiar detail that seemed more curious upon reexamination. Though his mother’s manners were always so genteel in Horatio’s memories it was possible that she had come from a poor family. Horatio’s sentiment was likely clouding his judgment in this matter so he dare not make assumptions.

“It would seem I have not, sir, at least not that I can remember.”

Pellew frowned as if to himself.

“No, you would not have.”

“Sir?”

Horatio puzzled over the admiral’s peculiar behavior and his sudden newfound knowledge of his family. His usually shrewd superior was agitated in a way that Horatio had seldom seen and so he felt his own anxiety build as he watched Pellew flounder.

“Mr. Hornblower, I wish to tell you that we are related.”

Horatio’s expression warmed instantly. With the admiral’s attitude he had suspected that someone of his acquaintance had been imprisoned or worse. This, however, was far different.

“Indeed, sir?”

He wondered how close they were by blood though Horatio did not suspect it was too close or his family would have told him of their connection. The Pellews were a grand house. No matter how he wished it he dared not hope the admiral was like family in relation as much as he was by his actions.

“I was ignorant that you had no knowledge of our association until after a year of your service aboard the Indefatigable. You seemed to have no recollection of our family or my relation-- to you.” Here the admiral cleared his throat and eyed Horatio as if waiting for him to react.

Horatio frowned. “Are we close, sir?” After he said the words a slight flush suffused his cheeks. He, the son of a doctor and a born and bred aristocrat closely related? Though he supposed stranger things had occurred though this was unlikely to be case. Perhaps distantly they-

“Horatio, you are my nephew.”

A tremor ran through the Captain’s hand. He had to set the fragile cup gingerly down before he could spill any of its contents upon the desk.

Horatio’s throat dried up as he struggled to find words. Luckily, the admiral started to put the situation into perspective for him.

“I had no knowledge that you had entered in the service of his majesty’s navy until I received your papers of transfer from Captain Keene. I had thought, wrongly at the time but I was soon to see my error of judgment, that you had requested a posting aboard the Indefatigable in hopes of earning favoritism.”

Distantly Horatio recalled the cold reception from the Indefatigable’s Captain aboard the ship where Horatio had hoped to make a fresh start. His dreams of starting anew were soon dashed as he was reprimanded for dueling and then promptly given responsibility for the discipline of Simpson’s old crew. To think that had all been because Pellew had thought he wanted special treatment.

“I did not know, sir.”

“Quite right. I became aware that you had no inkling of the matter after that first year passed us by with nary a word about it from you. All the time I could not stop seeing her in you. You resemble your father closely of course but in many ways you take after my own sister.” A warm look washed over the admiral’s features. “Her name was Elizabeth Ellen Pellew, my sister’s maiden name before she married Doctor Hornblower. She was strong willed, unyielding when she had her mind set to something.” A melancholic note entered into his speech.

“I had not seen her for many years and had not known she had been with child until I saw your and the name of your father upon the transcript from the Justinian.”

Here, the admiral proceeded with more caution.

“As the years progressed I made a pact with myself that I should tell you of our ties when the correct time arrived. It eventually became apparent there would be no such time.”

“Sir?”

Horatio thought he had been nothing but patient and attentive when listening to his former captain. Had he perhaps unintentionally stifled this confession somehow?

“We grew close, something that was not due to circumstances of your birth, but was a credit to your outstanding service and...ha h’m friendship.”

Here Horatio felt his expression soften. He was honored that the admiral should consider him a friend when the thought was often in his mind in regards to his superior.

“I thought that our relationship would change. In many ways I was reluctant to lose what we had aboard the Indefatigable and I admit some of it was due to my presumptions. I had thought you proud and that despite your lack of title you aimed to make your service to his majesty exemplary. I did not wish to tack you into a situation you were unprepared for, or perhaps did not desire. Our families quarreled and though I dearly love my blood we have a propensity to be hard-headed. Your parents would not be reconciled and so you were cast adrift to make your own way”

Pellew stood again as he explained. He stepped over to the starboard side and gazed out of the stern window into the darkening sky.

“I had wondered many times what had become of her.” There was pain in his voice like someone having their wounds sluiced.

Horatio watched the admiral speak of Horatio’s mother with a deep weariness that stemmed from a situation that could not have been changed. Horatio was no stranger to that kind of helplessness.

“It is a comfort to know that some part of her lives on in you.”

Horatio swallowed. He found himself tongue tied through this revelation of the admiral’s deeper familial feelings and how dear he was to the admiral through nature of his blood. He supposed that their former relationship should have felt cheapened somehow, supposing that Pellew had befriended his nephew out of a sense of duty and not true admiration of a promising young man under his tutelage. The thought had crossed his mind but Horatio found it somehow easy to dismiss.

Horatio had lived through many a battle during his service with the Indefatigable and throughout it all he found himself buoyed by encouragement and praise when he succeeded. There had been the hard times too when Hornblower was too weary to shoulder the burden of what he had seen and been forced to do. With those traumas he had let his mask drop in front of his uncle and had wept bitterly in his presence. He had found his aches soothed there in the cabin, able to fight through another day due to his words and the regard he held for Hornblower encompassing them.

For Horatio, the admiral had already been as his family.

“I am glad it is so, sir.” The statement was uncharacteristically simple for Horatio but it seemed to get the point across.

When Pellew turned back to him he had fond gleam in his eyes.

“You do not resent that I kept this from you, prevented you from rising more swiftly through the ranks?”

Horatio spluttered a half-chuckle. “I am as you say I am, sir, unwilling to take any merit through name alone.”

“-and you have risen through the ranks swiftly enough,” Pellew finished his thoughts for him though Hornblower would never have voiced it aloud.

Horatio hid a tentative smile at the observation. Something was still niggling at him that was hard to identify, a curious tickle over information that had not been revealed. It was not, as one would expect, over the subject of their family's quarrels. Families quarreled often enough as evidenced by his own tumultuous relationship with the late Dr. Hornblower. He was bound to ask after the details later but for now the matter would rest. No, he was curious as to why here, why now should Pellew make this declaration of kinship. He had a suspicion but wished for the admiral to confirm his hypothesis should it turn out to be merely a fancy.

“You mentioned before that you were waiting for the precise moment to tell me this-” As tempting as it was to tack on the address of ‘uncle’ the familiarity seemed discourteous. Admiral Pellew was still his commanding officer and only once Horatio stopped receiving his orders from the man would he permit himself to utter such a familiarity.

For the first time since he entered the cabin the admiral permitted himself a smile.

“Yes, it seemed an appropriate time to divulge our relationship, given how you have declared yourself a family of your own. If it would be permissible, I should wish to be a consideration should you and Maria need any assistance or have need of a friendly ear.”

“I would be honored, sir.”

Horatio would be fortunate to have his wife and his career under the admiral’s protection. Though Pellew had been instrumental in saving his life several times he was still puzzled as to why he indicated he might need assistance. Horatio had a Captain’s pay now and Maria did not want for anything, Horatio had seen to that.

“Who knows, when there are little Hornblowers running about you might find yourself in need of a few hours of peace and quiet.”

“Sir!”

Horatio did not believe his ears. After some stuttering he somehow managed to answer.

“I- Thank you, sir.”

Pellew’s smile was genuine as he eyed the young man he had grown so proud of and prepared for the world. It was a curious fate indeed that he should have escaped many of the responsibilities of his title through his career and find himself laden with more personal responsibilities than ever. 

Hornblower was still red in the face from the mention of having children but he seemed pleased. A slight smile curved his mouth and his posture relaxed in the company of his former mentor and recently discovered uncle. 

There was no doubt that the young man was content with had transpired and did not resent the admiral at all. It made Pellew wonder why he had hesitated to tell him, but then, he was known to be cautious where family was concerned. There had been enough missteps that had cost him a relationship with his sister and his nephew. He was simply glad that he had not paid the full price and had the lad's friendship as he progressed from midshipman to captain.   
  
"I propose a toast, Captain Hornblower," Pellew raised the previously forgotten glass.

Horatio followed suit, eyeing his commanding officer inquisitively. 

"To the continued health and happiness of your family."

Horatio smiled, a rare moment for him when he was usually caught in his dark moods. He made an addition to the toast while returning the admiral's gaze.

"And to our family." 

Nothing had felt so true and right.

 

The End.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This story is in honor of Tamuril2 who has been as a sister through the hard times and has helped me see the whimsy in the world. Thank you very much fellow creator of new realms and new possibilities.


End file.
